As Time Goes By
by w nymph
Summary: One Shot, AU, ZeroTwo/Tamers/Frontier x-over - The Darkness is defeated. Two worlds should now unite. And yet everything comes different…


**Author's Note:** Long time, no see, Digimon fandom, I guess. ^^;

It's a result of the last few weeks of endless Digimon rewatches for my old Digimon Season Crossover „Guardian of the Spirit", which is now in process of being rewritten. I have had a little trouble to get back into the story, because I have misplace the notebook, where I kept all my thoughts and facts for the story. I have some of that saved in a doc, but it's still a bit of an annoyance.

Even so, rewatching Digimon and writing the story, has helped me a lot to remember what twists I had planned and how I had set up the verse. I've been getting some new ideas, some of them are already integrated in this one shot, which sort of serves as prelude and introduction into the verse.

Please enjoy.

**Warnings:**

1. AU, ZeroTwo/Tamers/Frontier crossover

2. Everyone who has read Guardian of the Spirit will probably notice the strange POV I've written this from. I wanted this to be a bit mroe generic and not quie as much of a monologue as my writing style usually is. It's not the way I'm continuing to write Guardian in.

3. Present Tense. Which I figure kind of need a warning since it's not something I'm quite used to using either in fic. Though I've been using it more and more in One Shots and Drabbles, so I guess I should soon stop warning for it. |D

4. Before I forget, this is kind of spoilerish for things yet to be touched on in Guardian. However I figure it will probably serve only to make people more curious perhaps?

5. Pairings: Takari and mentions of Sorato

**Summary:** One Shot - The Darkness is defeated. Two worlds should now unite. And yet everything comes different…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon.

**--- As Time Goes By ---**

The world is consisting of light.

Light of courage, light of friendship, light of love, light of knowledge, light of purity, light of sincerity, light of hope.

Light.

Light coming from the small device they all share, the Digivice.

So many, many threads of light that come together into one big string, that ban the darkness that is BelialVamdemon – hopefully forever.

They have done it. The Digiworld, a second home for all of them now, is save.

Looking around is breathtaking, sure they had known that there were others around the world, but so many!?

For Hikari that seems like the first step to her dream: human and Digimon living peacefully side by side. No more hiding. No more lying. Just being true to what she is.

Then Gennai-san appears, smiling and returning Tailmon's Holy Ring. He is happy to give it back, now that it isn't needed anymore as medium for the Jogress Evolution.

Tailmon is more than happy to have it back and return to the strength that is proper for her level, perhaps not realising the loss of the joined evolution with Aquilamon. Hikari is not about to point it out, she is far too happy that the fighting has finally ended.

She watches Iori as he tries to help Oikawa Yukio to cross the border to the Digital World, watches as Oikawa-san's Digimonpartner Pipimon appears, watches as Oikawa-san decides to sacrifices himself and use his remaining life to restore the Digital World.

She feels tears in her eyes, from both sadness and happiness as she sees butterflies of light reanimate everything they touch. She knows: In some way Oikawa-san has managed to achieve his dream. Because he hasn't died. He will always be part of the Digital World now.

And when she sees her brother and everyone start chatting and connecting with the other Chosen Children from all over the world, she approaches Gennai-san instead quietly asking him how possible it was for her to achieve _her_ dream.

Gennai-san thinks for a moment and smiles gently. It is more than possible, he says, it is what he and his comrades have been working towards. However they still had a long way to go, even with the darkness defeated and BelialVamdemon gone.

Hikari just nods determined and shares a glance with Tailmon – neither of them had expected it to be easy to unite both worlds, even if just in thought, and neither of them is afraid to do whatever is needed to make this dream come true.

Shortly afterwards they once again leave for the Real World and Hikari is slightly surprised to find herself on the hill where three years before her brother and everyone else had first been drawn into the Digital World from.

She smiles excited as she runs over to her parents, her older brother following in a somewhat slower pace. From the corner of her eye, she can see everyone else reuniting with their families – Daisuke mock fighting with his sister, Takeru and Yamato talking with their parents, their meeting perhaps not quite as awkward as it had been the last time under those circumstances, Iori getting fussed over by his mother while his grandfather looks just proud, Miyako dragging Ken to meet her siblings… and then she is drawn into an embrace by her own mother, who just smiles almost a bit sad and her father mutters something about them having grown up so much.

The children Oikawa-san had kidnapped are also here, greeting their children overenthusiastically and Hikari catches quite a few stunned looks. Perhaps those children had never quite realised just how loved they were.

Her brother catches her glance and smiles as well. They both feel it; know it. This is the start into a new future. And they all are the ones shaping it.

Two years pass and things have stayed peaceful in both worlds.

Most of them have taken up middle school uniforms now and she is still in the same class as Takeru and Daisuke.

They visit the Digital World several times a week, though not as often as before perhaps – school work is cutting a lot into the time that they can spent with their Digimon, a fact that Daisuke cannot bemoan enough.

And one day Gennai-san is standing before all of them once again, asking them for the DigiMentals and warning them not to enter the Digital World for a while.

The balance is now fully restored, he says, and a final reconfiguration is needed to ensure the safety of the Digital World. It would separate them for a month, but after that things would and could be different. After that everybody would be able to visit the Digital World and he would send word the moment everything was set up.

Hikari smiles; this is what she has dreamed of.

However the month passes and yet: there is not a word. Another week goes by without a word, then two and suddenly another month has passed and they still haven't heard a word from Gennai or one of his accomplices.

Koushiro seeks contact with the other chosen around the world, but all of them share the same experience: They had sent their Digimon back and had been told to wait until the Digital World had been reconfigured. None of them had heard from their partner or of the digital guards.

Two more months pass and it is more than safe to say that _something_ has gone wrong. They can only guess just how wrong, because then another month has passed and they watch helplessly as Digimon go wild and suddenly there is this red slime called the "D-Reaper" (or so the media insists) and that is most definitely of digital origins, absorbing almost all of West Shinjuku.

They all feel helpless and frustrated, because even when Koushiro finally manages to detect a digital gate in West Shinjuku, they have no way to it due the D-Reaper. However, apparently the Digital World has found another stock of Chosen, who are thankfully more than crafty enough to deal with the threat.

Even so, Hikari can feel the slight doubt entering not just her heart but also that of the others. Has the Digital World abandoned them? Weren't they needed anymore?

They try to seek out those other chosen children, however without the slightest clue, the digital gate once again firmly closed and even the D3 Digivice being surprisingly unhelpful in their search, they soon find them at a dead end.

Another year passes without as much as a whisper from the Digital World and to Hikari it seems even worse than the three years after their first adventure, because back then, while sparely, they had had contact with their partners at least every once in a while. They had known that things were alright. But now there is nothing.

One day, they hear of a strange incident in Shibuya, of strange messages being sent to everyone in the area and of sightings of a strange dragon like creature breaking through Shibuya station for a moment. Once again Koushiro goes to investigate and once again he comes back empty handed – this time they know even less about what happened than with Shinjuku.

Time goes on, year after year and now six years later, the feelings of worry and melancholy that Hikari has come to associate with the Digital World have long been forced into the back of their minds by the swiftness of life and the pressure of High School and has mostly disappeared. Now she is able to think back to Tailmon and all the good times they have had and smile.

By now almost everyone has left high school for college or university, has gone to follow their calling.

Taichi has joined the Liberal Party as their youth representative, slowly working up his way in the ranks – even if it would still take years until he would truly be able to make a difference. Yamato had stayed true to his guitar, the Teenage Wolves had been renamed into the "The Wolves" – after all, the band members were hardly teens anymore.

Sora, who has been seeing him for nine years now, has followed her rather traditional mother's wishes in her very own way – even though never less than a lady, she wears and designs western styled clothing with pride, adding her own flavour to them and would surly be successful soon enough.

Mimi has returned from the states, for good now that she is a learned chef, and as of now, she is searching for work, seeking to apply all the knowledge she has gathered on food from all over the world.

Jyou has almost finished medical school and would soon start an internship in Shibuya. Koushiro has finished his studies in record time – majoring in both, Physics and Computer Science.

Daisuke has stayed true to his dream to open a ramenstand and started an apprenticeship in one of the most renowned ramenbars in whole Tokio; they were still trying to find out how he had pulled off that one.

Miyako is visiting University as well with Computer Science as her major, even if she keeps sayng that she has yet to find out what she truly wants from life. And yet she might have already decided that, unconsciously, she has moved in together with Ken after all. Ken has finished police school by now, defending the law in the streets – even if just by directing the traffic.

Iori, the only one of them who is still visiting High School, has not quite the time to think of his future – not now when he is mourning his grandfather, who had passed away the month before. His mother, too, seems quite effected by the loss and has been talking about moving somewhere else. Hikari isn't sure what exactly Iori is thinking of this and when she tries to ask him, he smiles and tells her that it isn't important right now. Not today.

Because today is the perhaps most important day of her life. Today she is getting married to the only person who know her soul completely, to the one who swore to protect her when they were just children and had been keeping himself to that promise ever since even when she says that she doesn't need it, not when she is more than adult enough to watch out for herself.

Today she is getting married and soon they would leave for the States, a journey sponsored not only by their parents but also by all the other former Chosen Children of Odaiba. It is a luxurious gift, one she and Takeru aren't sure they deserve, but how could they say no when everybody is encouraging them to go (despite what either of their schedules at University may say). And honestly, how could they refuse to see so much more of their own world?

So she takes Takeru's hand, smiling and laughing as they spent their evening with friends and family and looking forward to the future, even if it doesn't seem to include Digimon.

Smiling and laughing and not knowing about the shadow that is to come.

Because even if the Chosen Children are forgotten by most of the Digimon, even if the Chosen Children are beginning to forget themselves what it was like to be chosen, to stand up and believe and _fight_, there is someone who remembers.

Remembers the light he has long desired to possess, to call his own.

And he will do everything to get it.

_--- FIN ---_

Please review?

EDITED 25/3/10: Fixed some typos and put up one more warning (because appearently you need to warn for mentioning comon pairings now too -.-).


End file.
